Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
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 CG render of ET-AIZ about to enter the water.
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| Summary | |
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| Date | November 23, 1996 |
| Type | Fuel starvation due to hijacking |
| Site | Kenyan airspace |
| Passengers | 163 |
| Crew | 12 |
| Injuries | 50 |
| Fatalities | 125 |
| Survivors | 50 |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 767-260ER |
| Operator | Ethiopian Airlines |
| Tail number | ET-AIZ |
| Flight origin |  Sahar International Airport, Mumbai, India |
| First stopover |  Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Second stopover |  Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya |
| Third stopover |  Maya-Maya Airport, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo |
| Last stopover |  Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria |
| Destination |  Port Bouet Airport, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire |
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked on November 23, 1996 en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on a Bombay-Addis Ababa-Nairobi-Brazzaville-Lagos-Abidjan route, by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board.
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[edit] The hijack
When ET-AIZ, the Boeing 767-260ER, entered Kenyan airspace, three Ethiopian men charged the cockpit and hijacked the airplane. According to a special report by Airdisaster.com,[1] "One of the men ran down the aisle toward the cockpit shouting statements that could not be understood, and his two accomplices followed soon after." The report described the men as "young (mid-twenties), inexperienced, psychologically fragile, and intoxicated."[1] Ethiopian state-operated radio later identified the hijackers as two unemployed high school graduates and a nurse, named Alemayehu Bekeli Belayneh (አለማየሁ በቀለ በላይነህ), Mathias Solomon Belay (ማቲያስ ሰለሞን በላይ), and Sultan Ali Hussein (ሱልጣን አሊ ሁሴን) (they did not say which was which).[2]
The men threatened to blow the plane out of the sky if the pilot, Leul Abate (ልዑል አባተ), and the co-pilot, Yonas Mekuria (ዮናስ መኩሪያ), did not follow their demands, announcing over the intercom that they were opponents of the Ethiopian government seeking political asylum, having recently been released from prison. The hijackers said that eleven of them existed when three actually existed.[3] Authorities later determined that the "bomb" was a covered bottle of liquor.
The hijackers demanded that the plane be flown to Australia. Abate tried to explain to the hijackers that the plane did not have enough fuel to make it even a quarter of the way there, but they did not believe him. Instead of flying towards Australia, the captain followed the African coastline. The hijackers noticed that land was still visible and forced the pilot to steer east. Abate secretly headed for the Comoro Islands, which lie midway between Madagascar and the African mainland.
[edit] Crash landing
The plane was nearly out of fuel as it approached the island group, but the hijackers continued to ignore the captain's warnings. Out of options, Abate began to circle the area, hoping to land the plane on the island group's main airport. When the plane ran out of fuel, both engines failed. The crew used a ram air turbine to preserve the aircraft's most essential functions, but in this mode some hydraulic systems—such as the flaps—were inoperative. This forced Abate to land at more than 175 knots (about 320 kilometers per hour or 200 miles per hour).
Abate tried to make an emergency landing on the airport at Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport, Grande Comore, but a fight with the hijackers at the last minute caused him to lose his visual point of reference, leaving him unable to locate the airport. While still fighting with the hijackers, he tried to ditch the aircraft in shallow waters 500 metres off Le Galawa Beach Hotel near Mitsamiouli at the northern end of Grand Comoro island. Abate tried to land parallel with the waves instead of against the waves in an effort to smooth the landing. ET-AIZ's left engine and wingtip struck the water first. The engine acted as a scoop, slowing that side of the aircraft quickly, causing the Boeing 767 to violently spin left and break apart.[3] Island residents and tourists, including a group of scuba divers and some French doctors on vacation, came to the aid of crash survivors.
National Geographic's series "How to Survive a Plane Crash" covered the crash details of Flight 961, stating that many passengers survived the initial crash of the 767 with the water, but as the captain instructed the passengers to brace and inflate their life jackets after exiting the fuselage which sank immediately upon impacting the water and splitting into 3 sections, many passengers panicked and inflated their life vests, causing them to immediately surface to the roof of the fuselage, trapping them inside as the fuselage sank.
Mariana Gouws, a South African tourist staying with her husband, recorded a video of ET-AIZ crashing [4]; Gouws said that she began filming because she initially believed that the 767 aircraft formed a part of an air show for tourists.[5]
[edit] Fates of passengers and crew
The passengers originated from the following countries[6]:
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Of the passengers, 42 boarded in Bombay, including[7]:
- 3 Americans
- 19 Indians
- 9 Nigerians
- 9 Sri Lankans
The rest of the passengers boarded in Addis Ababa.
123 of the 175 passengers and crew members were killed, as well as all three hijackers. Many of the passengers who died survived the crash but they had disregarded or did not hear Abate's warning not to inflate their life jackets inside the aircraft, causing them to be pushed against the ceiling of the fuselage by the inflated life jackets, unable to escape, and drowned. An estimated 60 to 80 passengers, strapped to their seats, presumably drowned.[14]
Abate and Mekuria survived. For his actions, Abate was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation Professionalism Award in Flight Safety.[15]
[edit] Notable passengers
Among those killed was Mohamed Amin, a famous wartime photojournalist and publisher of Selamta, Ethiopian Airlines's in-flight magazine.[16] He was believed to be standing near the entrance to the cockpit arguing with the hijacker presumed to be guarding the cockpit during the final moments of the flight, as depicted in the episode "African Hijack"/"Ocean Landing" of the docu-drama Mayday (Air Emergency and Air Crash Investigation). Brian Tetley, Amin's colleague, also died.[17]
Franklin Huddle, the U.S. Consul General of Bombay at the time, and his wife Chanya "Pom" survived the crash. [11] Huddle said that he chose to fly on Ethiopian Airlines while planning a safari trip to Kenya because of Ethiopian Airlines's reputation; Huddle said in an interview that the airline was one of two airlines in Africa to have Federal Aviation Administration certification. Huddle wanted a flight during the day, reasoning that flying during the day is "safer."[3] Huddle credits his and Chanya Huddle's survival to a last-minute upgrade to business class. [18]
Other passengers on the aircraft included Antal Annus, the Hungarian ambassador to Kenya[19], and a French foreign ministry official. [20]
[edit] Aftermath
This is perhaps one of the best-known hijackings because of the videotape.[5] The video would later serve as an important tool in studies of aviation crashes and procedures.
This was one of very few large airliner water landings. Both the captain and co-pilot of the flight received aviation awards,[21] and both continued to fly for Ethiopian Airlines.
The crash was featured in the "Ocean Landing"/"African Hijack" episode of Mayday (or Air Emergency/Air Crash Investigation).
Footage of the crash was also featured in an episode of Spike TV's World's Most Amazing Videos, explaining how people at the beach hotel who witnessed the crash went out to the wreckage and saved many of the passengers. This was also featured on Maximum Exposure and one of the three volumes of Most Shocking Moments Caught on Tape explaining virtually the same thing in a different way. An episode of Shockwave on The History Channel also featured footage of the crash, explained what happened and interviewed the pilots.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Special Report: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961
- ^ "Government Names Ethiopian Airlines Hijackers", Minnesota Daily (World & Nation digest), 1996-12-05. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
- ^ a b c "African Hijack"/"Ocean Landing," Mayday
- ^ "The AirSafe Journal - Issue 6," Airsafe
- ^ a b "Honeymooners capture dramatic images of Ethiopian jet crash," CNN
- ^ I was sinking fast . . . I had to get out
- ^ a b c d e f Terror in the Air, and Frantic Rescue From the Sea
- ^ "Hijacked Ethiopian Jet Crashes with 19 Indians Aboard," India Abroad
- ^ "PLANE IS HIJACKED; CRASHES IN OCEAN OFF EAST AFRICA," The New York Times
- ^ "Ethiopia mourns crash victims," CNN
- ^ a b c "`I Thought I Had Finished My Life' -- Tale Depicts Drunken Abductors Who Fought With Pilot -- Survivors Tell Of Terror As Jetliner Tumbles Across Ocean's Surface," The Seattle Times
- ^ "British woman swam from hijack plane," The Independent
- ^ "Terror in the Air, and Frantic Rescue From the Sea," The New York Times
- ^ Ethiopian airline crash kills at least 50
- ^ Flight Safety Foundation Award Citation. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved on 2007-09-18.
- ^ Episode Seven, Mo & Me
- ^ "Mohamed Amin, 53, Camera Eye During the Famine in Ethiopia," The New York Times
- ^ "No Resting Place," Brown University Alumni Magazine
- ^ "I was sinking fast . . . I had to get out," The Independent
- ^ "Bizarre ordeal recounted in Ethiopian Airlines crash," CNN
- ^ Flight Safety Foundation Professionalism Award in Flight Safety
[edit] External links
- Accident description on the Aviation Safety Network
- Bizarre ordeal recounted in Ethiopian Airlines crash CNN
- CNN interview transcripts
- Announcement of death of Mohammed Amin and Brian Tetley
- Rescuers continue search for victims of hijacked plane
- The Hijacking of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (Criminal Acts Against Civil Aviation - 1996, FAA)
- Photos of ET-AIZ
- Video clip of the crash
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